Today was a fairly productive day when it comes to tearing down an engine with the help of small-ish children!
We started out by pulling the studs out of the head. Unfortunately, I broke one off just below the deck... D'oh! In the end, we managed successfully remove all the studs but that one.
Fortunately, this turned into an excellent opportunity to teach things to those same small-ish children. If you're interested, the following video is a quick practical lesson in jam-nuts and cheater-pipes. (It is also those things even if you're not interested.)
When that was all done, it seemed like a good time to pull the side timing cover off. So, this thing has two timing covers, actually - a small one on the side, and the main one that actually bolts into the smaller one. I was surprised to find that the gear on the camshaft is actually made of some sort of composite fiber. This was pretty obvious, as the teeth were pretty badly chewed up. It kind of surprises me that the engine was as able to run as well as it did. And again, I mumbled under my breath about alleged engine rebuilds...
Once the side timing cover was off, it kind of made sense to drop the oil pan. It was at this point that I realized some of the error in my ways, as the front engine mount is attached to the front timing cover. I'm gonna need to think on this a bit before I can remove that cover...
This left the oil pump (and its horribly nasty filter) nicely exposed and ready for removal.
And, of course, another opportunity to annoy my kids ...
Today, I went and talked with the fella that's gonna do the rebuild on my engine. Started making plans to bring him the block and all the parts needed for a short block here in the next few weeks.
A little later in the afternoon we got into another discussion about turning linear motion into circular motion (different daughter)...
Afterwards, we went ahead and pulled the pistons - this was a great opportunity to talk about rings, connecting rods, wrist pins, and so on.
Today I went over to Ed's house, and we rebuilt my steering box. Truth is, it's got some slop, and the expert adjuster wasn't able to do the adjustments all the way. We suspect it'll likely related to the one bearing with the broken roller, but that bearing is no longer made. By anybody.
That means replacing it requires using the newer style bearings, which also requires replacement of the races and the worm. That's about $250 when it's all said and done.
For now, I'll just settle - when I get things together enough that I can test out the steering and then I'll decide whether or not to do a full rebuild.
When we got home, I went ahead and re-installed the steering column on the frame - what a pain!
Today seemed like a good day to pull the flywheel. I read in the book (and was warned) that it weighs about 60 lbs... They were right - the danged thing is heavy..
The flywheel is held on by for safety-wired bolts. The bolts ride over the top of a retaining ring. The flywheel itself is pressed onto a couple of conical dowels.
Last modified on 07/20/14